Lee County Resident Sentenced in Federal Court for Failure to Pay $63,000 in Child Support

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

February 23, 2012

Montgomery, Alabama - Cloyd Brock, resident of Salem, Alabama, was sentenced in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama for a federal felony charge for willful failure to pay child support, United States Attorney George L. Beck, Jr., announced today.

In January of 2011, a federal grand jury indicted Brock for failing to pay $63,874.69 in child support. From October 1998 to the present, Brock did not pay a court-imposed and past due child support obligation for his five children who lived in New York State. Although Brock has made occasional child support payments and at times had his wages garnished to address the arrearage, he has not made a child support payment since March 2007. Brock has been employed during the periods he failed to pay child support and could have paid some portion of the child support, but did not. In August 2011, Brock pled guilty in federal court to the felony charge for willful failure to pay child support and agreed to repay the $63,874.69.

Under federal law, a parent can be prosecuted for failure to pay court ordered child support if the child lives in another state, the child support has been unpaid for more than a year and the amount owed is more than $5,000.

“People who have children, should treasure and nurture those children, not abandon them. My office will continue to prosecute those people who ignore their responsibility and fail to take care of their own children,” said U.S. Attorney Beck.

Chief United States District Judge W. Keith Watkins sentenced Brock to five years probation, including six months home confinement with electronic monitoring. Judge Watkins also ordered Brock to repay the $63,874.69 owed in restitution at a rate not less than $200 per month.

This case was investigated by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tamara B. Thomson from the United States Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of New York and Assistant United States Attorney Jerusha T. Adams from the United States Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Alabama.